210: Chapter 210 Go ahead and ask! Go ahead and ask!

When the military jeep drove out of the Macau checkpoint, it was still dark.

The Major handed over a bottle of water.

"Mr. Li, everything is ready in Shenzhen."

Li Li twisted off the cap and took a sip.

"That imposter?"

"Yes."

The Major sat very straight.

"After the incident with the Hong Kong flight, we traced the abnormal identity and locked onto one person. When we closed the net in Macau, his support chain was broken, and he didn't get away."

Li Li screwed the cap back on.

"Good luck."

The Major didn't respond.

He glanced to the side.

Li Li still bore the marks of the hospital.

His left wrist was in a brace, his right palm was wrapped in gauze, his jacket was torn in several places, and there was still dust in his hair.

Showing up at a military camp looking like this.

It didn't look like he was here to assist with an investigation.

It looked more like he'd just been salvaged from an explosion site.

The car entered a military camp in Shenzhen, and the sentry raised his hand in a salute.

Li Li was just about to nod.

The second sentry saluted as well.

Then the third.

Then the fourth.

On the training ground by the roadside, soldiers stopped what they were doing, turned, and saluted.

Li Li sat up a bit straighter.

"This kind of treatment is a bit hot to handle."

The Major spoke up.

"Everyone saw what happened in Hong Kong."

Li Li placed the water bottle by his leg.

"Don't do that, I have social anxiety."

The Major froze.

"You?"

"Yes. I don't have social anxiety when facing terrorists, but I do when facing praise."

The Major was silent for two seconds.

"Then you'll just have to get used to it."

Li Li sighed.

"This is forced desensitization therapy."

The car stopped in front of a small gray building.

Two sentries at the door saluted.

Li Li returned a rather sloppy salute.

The Major held back from correcting him.

It hadn't been easy to save his life.

The salute could be practiced later.

At the end of the corridor, a Senior Colonel stood at the door of the observation room.

He was in his forties, with stiff epaulets and an equally stiff demeanor.

"Mr. Li, my surname is Chen."

"Senior Colonel Chen."

Senior Colonel Chen pushed open the door.

"The first round of interrogation is done. His name is Zhang Nan, from Chengdu, twenty-seven years old. He was turned by foreign agents while studying abroad."

Li Li paused.

"How was he turned?"

"A female spy."

Li Li raised a hand and rubbed his forehead.

"A fellow countryman from Chengdu, went abroad, didn't manage to finish his studies, and didn't manage to handle his love life either."

The Major coughed.

Senior Colonel Chen continued.

"A month ago, Zhang Nan underwent facial micro-adjustments in South Korea, with two more surgeries planned. The ultimate goal was to make him look like you."

Li Li walked to the one-way glass.

A man was sitting inside.

His face had just been operated on and was still in the recovery period; his nose, jaw, and hairline were all leaning towards Li Li's appearance.

But it was only about halfway there.

It was like a Pinduoduo pre-order version.

Li Li watched for a moment.

"And after he's made to look like me?"

Senior Colonel Chen opened the folder.

"Approach General Jiang Zhan's daughter. Use her to approach General Jiang Zhan. Or perhaps use your public identity to infiltrate certain occasions."

Li Li didn't say anything.

A bit of red seeped through the edge of the gauze on his right palm.

They could hit him.

But targeting Jiang Rumu?

That was asking for trouble.

He turned his head.

"Can I go in and talk to him?"

Senior Colonel Chen closed the folder.

"That's against protocol."

Li Li nodded.

"Understood. Then could you please make a call and ask about the protocol?"

The Major's eyelid twitched.

That was very polite.

Translated, it meant: You won't let me in, so I'll find someone who will.

Senior Colonel Chen picked up the encrypted phone.

The call lasted less than twenty seconds.

He put the phone down.

"General Jiang's order: cooperate with Mr. Li on the scene."

Li Li picked up the transparent evidence bag on the table.

The Major's neck tightened.

Senior Colonel Chen didn't stop him, only adding one instruction.

"The medical team is outside the door."

The interrogation room door opened.

Zhang Nan looked up.

The next second, his whole body stiffened in the chair.

He was in the process of being turned into this face.

But the original had arrived.

And the original was wounded.

A battle-damaged original.

This was a huge blow to the pirated goods industry.

Zhang Nan just opened his mouth.

"You..."

Li Li placed the evidence bag on the table.

Slap.

Zhang Nan pressed his back against the chair, his whole body trembling.

Li Li didn't sit.

He didn't speak.

He just stood in front of Zhang Nan, looking down and flipping through the record sheets.

One minute.

Two minutes.

Three minutes.

The only sound in the interrogation room was Zhang Nan's increasingly ragged breathing.

Outside, the Major spoke in a low voice.

"Why isn't he asking anything?"

Senior Colonel Chen stared inside.

"Zhang Nan has undergone counter-interrogation training. If you ask normally, he'll evade. Let him guess for himself first."

The Major didn't say anything.

Inside, Li Li finally sat down.

He picked up a pen, then put it down.

He picked up the evidence bag, then put it down.

Zhang Nan couldn't take it anymore.

"Ask!"

Li Li looked up.

Zhang Nan's voice cracked.

"Why don't you just ask! Are you just going to sit there and scare me?"

Li Li paused.

"Didn't I ask?"

Zhang Nan almost cried.

"You didn't ask anything!"

Li Li nodded.

"That was my oversight."

In the observation room, the Major was stunned.

Forgetting to ask questions during an interrogation.

How could one overlook that?

Li Li opened a blank record sheet.

"First question."

Zhang Nan immediately sat up straight.

Li Li spoke.

"What kind of food do you like?"

Zhang Nan was stunned.

The Major was also stunned.

This question was very far from a spy case.

It was practically on the food channel.

Zhang Nan hesitated for half a second.

Li Li's finger touched the evidence bag.

Zhang Nan immediately spoke.

"Sushi! Salmon sushi! Hell Ramen! And Hotpot!"

Li Li looked down and wrote.

"Likes Japanese style, heavy spice, can accept raw food."

Zhang Nan gasped for air.

"What is the use of this?"

Li Li looked up.

"You're asking me?"

Zhang Nan shut his mouth.

"Second question. Do you put on your left or right shoe first?"

"Right foot."

"Every day the right foot?"

"Not necessarily. Right foot when nervous, otherwise it doesn't matter."

Li Li wrote down.

"Right foot priority when nervous."

The Major lowered his voice.

"Is this useful too?"

Senior Colonel Chen turned a page of the file.

"Disguising yourself as someone else isn't just about the face. Habits, movements, diet, speech pauses—they are all flaws."

The Major stopped talking.

He had thought Li Li was messing around.

Now he realized that this "messing around" had a method to it.

Li Li continued.

"How many names have you used overseas?"

"Two. Zhang Nan, and the English name Nansen."

"Who chose it?"

"A classmate, Amy."

"What about the person who turned you?"

Zhang Nan paused.

Li Li's finger touched the evidence bag again.

"Mina! Her name is Mina! Not her real name, I've only met her three times!"

"The contact code."

"I don't know the full chain."

Li Li didn't rush him.

He just pushed the evidence bag forward by half an inch.

Zhang Nan immediately supplied the info.

"The Korean doctor is called Park Jeong-hoon! The clinic is registered as skincare management; they do facial micro-adjustments on the second basement level!"

"The code."

"The first time, the coffee cup sleeve had a blue letter K. The second time, at the subway station locker, the password was the temperature of the day plus two digits. The third time, buying a specific lipstick at the airport duty-free shop, shade 307."

Li Li wrote quickly.

"How does your superior confirm you've completed the first phase?"

"Taking recovery photos. Front view, side view, thirty-degree angle. The background cannot show faces, and they are sent via a disposable email address."

"The email."

Zhang Nan recited a string of characters.

"The password."

Zhang Nan froze.

Li Li's hand stopped by the evidence bag.

"I forgot! I really forgot! The note is in the lining of my suitcase, inside a blue sock!"

The Major immediately pressed his headset.

"Search the suitcase, check the blue sock lining."

A few minutes later, a voice came back through the headset.

"Found the note."

The Major lowered his hand.

He was completely convinced now.

Li Li wasn't interrogating a person.

He was dismantling a person.

Dismantling the imposter into habits, desires, fears, and contact methods, then piecing it back together bit by bit.

Zhang Nan was already disoriented.

Li Li's questions were becoming increasingly miscellaneous.

"What was your high school Homeroom Teacher's surname?"

"Wang."

"Which Hotpot place do you like to eat at in Chengdu?"

"An old shop over on Yulin Road."

"The soup base?"

"Beef tallow."

Li Li stopped writing.

"Lying to me?"

Zhang Nan immediately corrected himself.

"Yin-Yang! I can't handle too much spice! Hell Ramen is what Mina likes, I just ate it along with her!"

Li Li circled something on the paper.

"Mina likes Hell Ramen."

In the observation room, Senior Colonel Chen immediately spoke up.

"Check consumption records related to Hell Ramen in South Korea. Female, twenty-five to thirty-five years old, residing within three kilometers of the plastic surgery clinic."

The Major recorded quickly.

This one sentence was worth more than the previous ten.

Zhang Nan thought he was just answering nonsense.

In reality, every sentence was filling in the gaps.

Li Li continued.

"How to approach General Jiang Zhan's daughter?"

Zhang Nan gritted his teeth.

Li Li didn't move, just looked at the evidence bag.

Zhang Nan immediately spoke up.

"Variety shows! They wanted to arrange for me to infiltrate the production crew of a certain entertainment program after your death, and then contact her team. Later, create a security disturbance and have me appear in a way that saves her."

Li Li's pen stopped.

"Save her?"

"Yes."

"Copying me?"

Zhang Nan didn't dare to respond.

Li Li put down the pen.

"You guys really have mediocre originality."

Zhang Nan lowered his head.

"I'm just an executor."

The evidence bag was picked up by Li Li.

Zhang Nan changed his tune on the spot.

"I'm not a human being! I'm guilty! I deserve to die! I shouldn't have sold intelligence for a green card and money!"

Outside, the Major held back for a long time.

"This confession efficiency..."

Senior Colonel Chen flipped through the records.

"Faster than conventional interrogation."

The Major looked inside.

"It's just hard on the suspect."

Senior Colonel Chen: "The medical team is there."

The Major: "It's hard on me too."

The interrogation lasted for several hours.

Zhang Nan went from holding out to actively volunteering answers.

The amount of the first payment received.

Overseas accounts.

Whether Mina had a ring scar on her left hand.

The location of the ventilation duct on the second basement level of Park Jeong-hoon's clinic.

The male assistant with a black ear stud in his right ear.

Every Tuesday at 3:00 AM, using a cleaning cart to transport drugs.

He confessed everything.

Li Li finished writing the last line and shook his sore right arm.

"Last question."

Zhang Nan was about to break down.

"There's more?"

"You had yourself operated on to look like me, did you pay a copyright fee?"

Zhang Nan was stunned.

"Huh?"

Li Li picked up the evidence bag.

Zhang Nan immediately shouted.

"I didn't pay! I infringed! I'll pay! I'm willing to pay!"

Li Li tossed the evidence bag back onto the table.

"Your attitude is acceptable."

Zhang Nan slumped in the chair.

His psychological defenses didn't collapse; they were bulldozed.

Li Li pushed the door and went out.

The medical team immediately went in to check on him.

Seeing the white coats, Zhang Nan almost cried out loud.

Those weren't doctors.

They were human after-sales service.

Senior Colonel Chen took the record sheet.

"Mr. Li, you asked more questions about daily life than about intelligence."

Li Li exercised his right hand.

"The hardest thing for an imposter to replicate isn't the face, it's the daily life."

He pointed to a few lines on the paper.

"The Korean clinic is one lead. Mina is one lead. The variety show production crew is one lead. Check the duty-free shop surveillance for the lipstick shade."

Senior Colonel Chen turned to give orders.

"Notify the technical team, merge the leads. Synchronize a copy with the Hong Kong Police Force, go through the Security Bureau channel. As for Lu Minghua and Zeng Xiangrong, let them sort out their own internal processes, especially the information system."

The Major wrote it down.

"What about Du Wen?"

Senior Colonel Chen glanced at Li Li.

"Don't alert him yet. Check the logs, leave a trace, don't startle the snake."

Li Li listened to these names.

He had already heard about that Hong Kong system.

The larger the system, the more it fears pinholes.

A pinhole isn't big.

But when it leaks, it's deadly.

Snowden being transferred was the pinhole starting to leak.

Li Li pressed the brace on his left wrist.

It hurt.

But his brain could still work.

He had always been serious about saving his own life.

Protecting those around him was the same.

He looked up.

"There is one more person I need you to help bring over secretly."

Senior Colonel Chen closed the folder.

"Who?"

Li Li flipped the record sheet to the back and wrote down a name.

"Shen Jue."

The Major froze.

"Him?"

Senior Colonel Chen didn't ask further, picking up the red internal phone.

"Action Team Two."

The call connected.

Senior Colonel Chen looked at Zhang Nan, who was still being checked in the interrogation room.

"Send two people, plainclothes, silent, bring Shen Jue to Building One."

He paused.

"It's not an arrest."

"Protective custody."